My youngest daughter, in 10th grade, complained about a bizarre technique her teacher is using. Every 10th grader in the school takes HUM (for humanities), a combined English/History course. The history teacher gives her a vocab quiz before starting the section in earnest. "It's not fair we have to know what these words mean before we even read the chapter!" They're studying classical China and India right now, so the morning before they started the section, they were quizzed over a list of terms including, among others, "Qin Dynasty", "Silk Road", "Daoism."

Was hard not to chuckle at that - I might have made the same complaint at that age, had our teacher used a similar pedagogical approach. "Maybe she wants to make sure you understand what she's saying in class, and what you're about to read in the book. It could save you time in the long wrong." (Scowl mixed with "you have *GOT* to be kidding me" look.)

I would say that if it's to guide the teacher in what must be taught and what is already known it shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't count towards the final grade. Of course, the teacher should make all this clear to the students.

I don't know, if every teacher used that method, kids might start to realize that not everything they need to learn is found in school. they might start reading newspapers and encyclopedias and other things just to be smart.

I think the idea is that the teacher want to make sure that the students understand the lectures she's about to impart and that they understand the chapter they're about to read.

I recall my first day ever teaching at college. I was terrified, but had muddled my way through it. I was explaining then for about 20 minutes or so how to go about conducting their first lab. I said, "When the cursor is here, you do this. When the cursor is there you do that." After 20 minutes, somebody timidly raises his hand and asks, "What's a cursor?" It had never occurred to me that someone would not know what one was.

And it's not like the definitions are fixed in one's mind. Most definitions in a history class are going to be necessarily vague. Over the course of the studies, what the terms actually mean become solidified in the students' minds.

Many teachers in this school are very big on giving outside reading. In AP Bio, for example, the teacher has already given a number of articles on protein-folding, etc., to the students - material which they are quizzed over in the following class (before discussing). They have two quizzes a day, almost every day in that class. Five simple questions at the start and end of every class (no idea when the woman finds time to grade this stuff).

At first she (my brat) complained that the articles didn't have anything to do with the sections they were working on, but then later, she it really was, but it wasn't obvious at first.

I don't know, if every teacher used that method, kids might start to realize that not everything they need to learn is found in school. they might start reading newspapers and encyclopedias and other things just to be smart.

...and there might be world peace, and politicians might say what they really mean and mean what they really say, and we might win the war on terror, and ...yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus!

I would say that if it's to guide the teacher in what must be taught and what is already known it shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't count towards the final grade. Of course, the teacher should make all this clear to the students.

But I speak/read/write in Spanish and some Farsi. WHAT IS INTERESTING is that for Farsi I learned vocabulary by association with the object. I have studied about 65,000 words in Spanish according to my data base I built. Much less for Farsi (Persian, Iranian Language). It is easier to remember Farsi words than Spanish even though I live in a Spanish speaking country.

I read a lot of Spanish literature. I learned to write poetry in Spanish (and English). From the literature I build the Spanish-English dictionary (both ways) using Filemaker Pro (runs on Mac and PC). When I did not know a word, I would look it up in a large Spanish dictionary and enter it into the computer. If it is country dependent I put an abbreviation of the country in the data base.

All things being equal, people will learn things better when they are interested in them. What we get out of education is related to what we put into it. We should pursue what we will be passionate about. Making a database of unfamiliar words is a worthwhile habit, perhaps taking the place of just writing out a definition and using it in a sentence, or making a flash card. 65,000 seems quite an extensive vocabulary in any language. With about how many of them do you suppose you have functional command?

Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site.
Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to
hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.